How do you cut your steak?

[Kent Wang]

I don't think you switch with the Continental style. If you did, there'd be no point to it at all -- it would essentially be the same as the zig-zag method, except left-handed... Right?

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That's what I thought until I ran this Google search. The first three hits all claim that Continental requires an initial switch.

[cdh]

I don't think you switch with the Continental style. If you did, there'd be no point to it at all -- it would essentially be the same as the zig-zag method, except left-handed... Right?

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That's what I thought until I ran this Google search. The first three hits all claim that Continental requires an initial switch.

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Ummm... no. The google results make no mention of switchiness in the european fashion. Don't know where you inferred that, b/c I don't see it in the texts.

But all of this is idiotic, and not worth anybody getting worked up about. So long as you don't make an egregious mess or hurt yourself, how the food gets from plate to mouth should be nobody's business but the diner's. If somebody is monodexterous and can't get food cleanly from plate to mouth with the off hand, then getting switchy is the best solution. For those with a little more ambidexterousness in 'em, what's the harm in using it?

Etiquette is all about not offending other people in the interest of general peace. That seems forgotten when people spoiling for a fight invent rules of equitette as grounds to become offended.

Edited January 29, 2006 by cdh (log)

[Kent Wang]

Ummm... no.  The google results make no mention of switchiness in the european fashion.  Don't know where you inferred that, b/c I don't see it in the texts.

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All of them refer to using the fork in left hand, which I presume is assumed by the texts as the off-hand. This text explicitly states that the knife is kept in the dominant hand:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Lifesty...ble_manners.htm

There are two styles of eating, Continental and American.  In the Continental style, which is more practical, the knife (for right handed folks) is kept in the right hand and the fork in the left, with no switching unlike the zigzag practice of the American style where the fork is changed from the left hand to the right after cutting food.

So after you finish your steak are you expected to continue eating with the fork in your off-hand, or do you switch back?

[cdh]

Look at the way a table is set:

Fork fork plate knife spoon

I think that this table setting tells you something about the expectations of how you'll handle your utensils. Forks, being on the left, are expected to be handled in the left hand. Knives and spoons, being on the right are expected to be handled by the right hand. The setting would, logically, be based in the idea of convenience and not for the purposes of making the diner go through an elaborate ritual of juggling silverware. So, yes, you're expected to keep the fork in your left hand.

Unless you're using it as a cutting implement, when you'd use it in your right hand with nothing in your left. Forks, for stabbing, poking and lifting are a left handed thing. Cutting is a dominant hand activity, so using a fork to cut necessitates switching... but otherwise I think the table setting indicates expectations.

[Chufi]

Ummm... no.  The google results make no mention of switchiness in the european fashion.  Don't know where you inferred that, b/c I don't see it in the texts.

←

All of them refer to using the fork in left hand, which I presume is assumed by the texts as the off-hand. This text explicitly states that the knife is kept in the dominant hand:

http://www.askandyaboutclothes.com/Lifesty...ble_manners.htm

There are two styles of eating, Continental and American.  In the Continental style, which is more practical, the knife (for right handed folks) is kept in the right hand and the fork in the left, with no switching unlike the zigzag practice of the American style where the fork is changed from the left hand to the right after cutting food.

So after you finish your steak are you expected to continue eating with the fork in your off-hand, or do you switch back?

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well, I'm no expert on etiquette, but here's what I see most people do over here:

keep knife in right hand, fork in left (assuming you're right handed) through out the meal. You use the fork to keep the steak/meat/ whatever in place while cutting off a piece with your knife. Then you either spear the piece of meat on your fork (allthough I seem to recall that this is not in the best of manners) or you use the knife to position the piece of meat, maybe together with some sauce/side dish, on to your fork. Lift fork with lefthand to mouth and put food in mouth.

[Philanthrophobe]

Point to something and exclaim loudly to divert others' attention away from the table, then pick up whole steak and quickly gnaw the marrow out of the bone and return it to my plate. Then resume continental-style steak-cutting.